How Do You Thrive In A Changing Landscape?

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By JEFF SCHWISOW

To thrive, or perhaps even survive, in today’s highly dynamic environment, requires constant, future-focused activity that allows you to plan and adapt to the changes and uncertainties that lie ahead.

The most successful businesses will be those that are intentional and strategic about managing their adaptive activities.

This means adapting your business to the change that is happening in your ecosystem as well as adapting to the opportunities within the ecosystem to help your business change for the better.

The danger in business today

Nearly every business book in the market right now will tell you that the pace of change in today’s business environment is greater than it has ever been. However, this has been true for decades.

For a long time, the ‘current’ environment has been more dynamic than ever before.

What is different in today’s business world is the pervasiveness of that dynamism.

Now, it is not just the so-called disrupted industries or single elements of your business that are being affected by the pace of change.

It’s happening everywhere, in every industry, and at every level of business.

Technology is at the heart of much of the changing landscape because it has been ingrained in every element of our businesses.

Technology influences the way we communicate – the way we market. It drives our business systems, it shapes product development and manufacturing, and for many organisations, it defines how we interact with our customers.

Nonetheless, having the best technology does not create a competitive advantage – it’s the businesses that adapt technology to meet their strategic intent that thrive.

The rules are changing

Our traditional management approach is quickly becoming obsolete in this changing business landscape.

It is no longer acceptable for businesses to wait to explore a market trend or a new opportunity only after the market – or a competitor – has demonstrated that it is a safe path to follow.

Today, by the time you see that a business shift is ‘safe’ for the majority, it has already reached a point where your organisation is scrambling to keep up with the shift.

Conversely, simply following a business trend or jumping on a technological bandwagon is rarely an effective response either.

Unless you fully understand the business benefits of a trendy new business approach or how to create value with a new technology, you can easily fail to deliver a positive return on your investment of time, energy and capital.

Worse yet, you can generate unintended consequences that can take years to repair.

The biggest pitfall is that most organisations have a risky perspective on change: they only acknowledge that a problem or threat exists when it becomes big – one that has confirmed its existence by manifesting itself as a negative business performance result.

Reacting to change this way puts you perilously behind in a race that punishes those who can’t maintain the pace.

Create technological adaptation that’s outside-in and inside-out

It’s easy to get caught up in embracing technological change for technology’s sake – to adapt your business to the outside technological world.

But the most effective businesses adapt emerging technologies to serve the needs inside the business – the strategic goals and the operational environment.

This creates a two-way adaptation where business direction is used to assess the potential impact of the changing business landscape and shifts to that landscape are used to set the course of the future business direction.

To create this outside-in, inside-out adaptation requires a learning mindset.

By constantly learning about your organisation and your business environment, you acquire the knowledge to make informed adaptation choices.

‘Inside’ learning should include operational improvement opportunities, enhancements to the customer experience, and identifying potential new products or services offerings.

As you explore technological improvements, utilise the knowledge and experience of people in the frontlines – those who are serving your customers, creating what you make, or maintaining your day-to-day business operations – to define what will make the business stronger.

Then rely on the people that know the most about the technology to explore ‘what’s possible’. In this way, technology enables business value rather than requiring the business to adapt to a new technology.

In conclusion

Business change has long been synonymous with strategic shifts initiated by the organisation.

However, in today’s cause-and-effect world, business change is no longer a choice.

Your business responds to this evolving dynamic environment whether you choose to or not.

Your challenge is to take control of the direction of that change and create an opportunity to adapt to adverse conditions before they negatively impact you and your bottom line.

Jeff Schwisow is a Melbourne-based strategy specialist, speaker, and the author of Projectify – How to use projects to engage your people in strategy that evolves your business. Jeff helps businesses use the power of projects to engage the very best of its people, consistently delight its clients, and constantly evolve to generate exceptional business results. To get in touch with Jeff, send us an email at editor@leaderonomics.com.

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